From carats to peanuts: how a pandemic upended the global diamond industry

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\u003cp\u003eJOHANNESBURG/MUMBAI - As the coronavirus pandemic upended the global diamond industry, shuttering mines from Lesotho to Canada and disrupting supply chains, Rajen Patel swapped diamond polishing for peanut farming. \\\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePatel, who worked fo

In a bid to survive, some miners are trying to change the traditional pricing game by securing a cut of onward polished diamond sales, and miners may eventually have direct tie-ups with luxury jewellery brands, RCC Diamond Consultants managing director Richard Chetwode predicts.

Lucara Diamond Corp, , which mines in Botswana, struck a deal in July with Antwerp manufacturer HB Group under which the miner’s diamonds larger than 10.8 carats are sold for a portion of the estimated polished price. In the meantime, miners are hoping production cuts will help prices recover. With Rio Tinto’s massive Argyle diamond mine in Australia among those coming offstream soon, global diamond production will likely be reined in until 2025, independent analyst Paul Zimnisky forecasts.

Even De Beers is feeling the pain, saying job cuts are likely, as it remains unclear whether supply will shrink enough to meet plunging demand in the global diamond jewellery market, which Bain estimated was worth $80 billion in 2019.

 

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The situation was already gloomy after the Kimberley Process refused to broaden definition of a 'conflict diamond' to ban all blood diamonds. No wonder that an industry which funds war crimes & crimes against humanity is tanking Humanrights CSR BDS

paulzimnisky Whilst the current climate is somewhat clouded, we believe our openvault ecosystem Countersigner, will not only help in the modernization of the Diamond industry, but also assist in the revitalization of the entire valuechain, from independent Diamantaires to the DeBeersGroup.

good, diamonds are bullshit anyways unless you're using them to cut things

Kim there’s people that are dying

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